Writing Group

[sraun]

My darling wife, iraunink, is asking for input on writing groups in a post here. This is her second writing group - her first experience with one was, to put it frankly, awful.

I think part of the problem was that the first group could not distinguish between 'I like this', 'this works', and 'this is done well'.

Comments

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

*nod* makes sense. There's a crucial difference between "I like this story, but it needs changes"; "This isn't my cuppa, but it works"; "Well-written, but it bores me to tears through no fault of your own".

Being able to distinguish these three is critical to good, constructive feedback on writing... Not to mention, knowing each person well enough to know how to say "OMG, this sucks sooo bad! *claws eyes out*" so that the person will actually listen to the feedback. ;-)

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it's important that the group make that distinction -- I think it's important that the writer figure out (with further inquiry, if necessary) whether a putative objection to a thing in the work is actually an objection to that thing, and whether it's a matter of personal preference or defect.

Usually I don't respond this much to anyone's friends list,but can't resist this one. . .

[newblksusan.livejournal.com]

Surfing through Tygerr's friends' list and your question brought make miserable flash back memories of far too many bad creative writing workshops (and don't make me go into details as my userid on LJ will offer whatever you or your wife might need to know. Just TAKE MY WORD on the following:

I am a VETERAN of sorts of creative writing programs.

Now, having stated that, MY experience is that your wife should, hopefully, have a clue about who she views and values as an excellent reader of HER WORK, HER VISION and HER OBJECTIVE. Hopefully this person will also have a clue about CRAFT as well.

Now, having stated this. . .if you have a ragtag or random group of readers you are doomed before you get started. Why? there will be diversity of skill level, ability, interests, types of writers, etc. and then, for instance, you will find that someone who is totally into science fiction will have severe problems understanding what a writer is trying do with a romance or someone who is a realist will have issues with someone who is writing magical realism. Why? Everyone likes to think or believe their preferred genre or that their personal taste is what should dictate their opinon on someone else's work.

I remember once, while at Johns Hopkins, I had white classmates who had the NERVE to complain: "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS WRITING ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE AND BLACK ISSUES?"

?!?!?!?
For real. I couldn't believe it.

Now check this out: these white classmates never, ever bothered to reach much in the way of anything by any racial minority so my thing was: what in the hell makes you think that my writing should cater to YOU ---white people? And, hello --- did ya not notice that I AM BLACK? And I am telling YOU: "Why are you always writing about white characters? HUH?" I mean it after awhile, I got to the point where I didn't listen to much of the opinions of any of my classmates other than the now critically acclaimed Z.Z. Packer -- MY ONLY OTHER BLACK CLASSMATE at Johns Hopkins, OK?

In other words: Z.Z., even though she could be highly critical of my work, was the ONLY one who UNDERSTOOD where I was trying to "come from" where my classmates just had some kind of weird mental block that wanted me to subscribe to some kind of colorblind view of literature that hardly seemed realistic to me. And that viewpoint had NOTHING to do with me and EVERYTHING to do with what THEY WANTED ME TO WRITE!

Screw that.

So, in essence, your wife needs to find, I feel just TWO TO THREE GOOD READERS who, first of all, UNDERSTAND her objectives and visions and know something about craft.

I'm afraid to say that sometimes it is a very long and problematic search to find those two to three good readers, but when she does find them, she will know it. Why?

I will argue that a writer ALWAYS knows when they're "trying to get away with something" or they know when something isn't quite "working" in their text. When she has someone call her on this and suggest something that, guess what? WORKS! And not only works, but PRESERVES THE INTENT OF WHAT SHE IS TRYING TO ACHIEVE AS A WRITER --- then guess what? She will have latched on to the "good reader" that she needs to go to whenever she wants an honest take on her writing.

That's my 2 cents. hope it helps. . .